Wahnfried: Tonwelle (1981)

Richard Wahnfried - Tonwelle

Wahnfried 2

Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)
Michael Garvens (vocals)
Manuel Göttsching (guitar)
Karl Wahnfried (guitar)
Michael Shrieve (drums)

Track Listing:

1.	Schwung	17:05
2.	Druck	18:20

Rating: 4 Stars

This is the second album that Klaus Schulze made using the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried. It reunites him with his old friend Manuel Göttsching, the guitarist in Ash Ra Tempel, which had now shortened its name to Ashra. (Some people say that Ashra was a new band, not a continuation of Ash Ra Tempel. That's something to argue about over a beer).

One mystery guest on the album is the second guitarist, Karl Wahnfried. That's obviously a pseudonym for someone well known. It's now 38 years since the album was released, and it's still a closely guarded secret. Apart from the musicians involved nobody knows. It's possible that a contract was signed that the person's identity should be kept secret because he was under an exclusive contract to another record company. There are several theories, but the most common opinion, based on the sound, is that the guitarist is Carlos Santana. I don't know his music well enough to comment on this.

I own the 1990 CD release which includes tracks taken from the third Wahnfried album, "Megatone". In 2012 an official CD re-release was made on which the music has been corrupted. I can easily explain what happened, but it's incomprehensible how the record label could have acted so stupidly.

When "Tonwelle" was released in 1981 the LP was labelled to be played at 45 rpm, not the usual 33 rpm. This was a gimmick used by several LPs on the IC (Innovative Communication) label. A myth was propagated that the 45 rpm speed was incorrect, and the album should be played at 33 rpm. This led the record label MiG (Made in Germany) to release a CD with the tracks slowed down. A bonus CD was added with the two tracks at the faster speed, but it looks like they made a mistake in the conversion, presumably by speeding up the slow tracks in a second step rather than using the original tracks. These are the thoughts of KDM in his broken English:

In 2012, the German label "Made in Germany" released a double CD with two versions each of both Tonwelle tracks. They seem to believe that the original release with 45 RPM was wrong (!). At least their first promotion stated impressively and for some weeks: "on the original cover was wrongly given to play it in 45 RPM" & "the first editions on CD were in this 45 version, different as what the artist wanted" & "for the first time ever are now both versions available, the correct one and the involuntary wrong one" = ALL WRONG. Although I told them that the reason for their strange doing and the release itself is completely wrong, it doesn't hinder them to release this nonsense double CD anyway: one MiG version is circa 26% slower and the other version is circa 26% lower in pitch. The original version is not included (!) Besides, they sell this product now under "Klaus Schulze".

To sum it up: don't buy it. The CD is a mess. It's now out of print, but don't waste your money on a second hand CD on Ebay. Wait for a future re-release.